Settlements in 4 New York wrong-way crash lawsuits

WHITE PLAINS — Settlements have been reached in four lawsuits stemming from a wrong-way minivan crash that killed eight people on a parkway, a lawyer said.The terms of the settlements are confidential, said attorney Kevin Grennan, who represented one of the victims and the only survivor.The lawsuits were brought...

WHITE PLAINS — Settlements have been reached in four lawsuits stemming from a wrong-way minivan crash that killed eight people on a parkway, a lawyer said.

The terms of the settlements are confidential, said attorney Kevin Grennan, who represented one of the victims and the only survivor.

The lawsuits were brought against the estate of Diane Schuler and against her brother, who owned the minivan she was driving. Schuler was going the wrong way on the Taconic Parkway in 2009 when she hit a sport utility vehicle carrying three men.

The men were killed, along with Schuler, her daughter, who was 2, and her three nieces, ages 5, 7 and 8. The lone survivor was Schuler's son, who was 5.

Schuler was driving the red minivan home from a weekend camping trip to Parksville in Sullivan County home to Long Island on July 26, 2009, when she inexplicably drove south in the northbound lanes for nearly 2 miles of the parkway before colliding head-on with the SUV in Westchester County, just north of New York City, police said.

According to a report in the Times Herald-Record, after leaving the campground, Schuler stopped at a McDonald's in Liberty for breakfast, then continued home on Route 17, where police received reports of a minivan matching the description of Schuler's traveling erratically.

An autopsy found Schuler, who drove past Do Not Enter signs onto the Taconic, was intoxicated and had been smoking marijuana.

The lawsuits were brought by Schuler's surviving son and by the estates of her daughter and the men.

Michael Bastardi Jr., whose father and brother were killed along with a family friend, said Wednesday that the lawsuits produced no new information about the wrong-way crash.

Schuler's husband said after the crash that the parkway's warning signs were insufficient and that the “appropriate lanes of travel” weren't properly marked. He insisted before her autopsy that she must have been suffering from a medical condition that would explain her actions.